FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 47 



fourths of the nitrogen and phosphorus, if you don't lose 

 any. We can sell the wheat out of this rotation and lose about 

 one-fifth of the manure production and still get back as many 

 tons of fresh manure as we hauled off in air-dry produce. 



Q. Will that amount of manure keep up the fertility of 

 the soil? 



A. If you have enough legume crops, it will keep up the 

 nitrogen. I think it will do it in this rotation if you always 

 insist in having the legume in rotation. I would prefer, where 

 you can do so, to have five fields and put alfalfa on the fifth 

 field, and for live stock farming you may have two crops of 

 corn, the wheat crop being omitted. Leave alfalfa ©n one field 

 for four or five years and then move it over and keep that com- 

 bination going on. That system will maintain the nitrogen and 

 vegetable matter. No rotation by itself will maintain soil fer- 

 tility; you cannot maintain fertility by rotating crops any more 

 than you can maintain your -bank account by rotating your check 

 book among the members of your family. Limestone must be 

 applied where needed, and ultimately phosphorus must also !">e 

 applied. 



O. What would you consider the manure value of a crop 

 fed and turned under on an old pasture? 



A. It is very difficult to know the value of decaying 

 organic matter. You would get about three-fourths of the 

 plant food in the crop returned to the pasture, but you will only 

 get one-third of the vegetable matter or humus-making ma- 

 terial. Some of your lands tend to w^ash badly. Under those 

 conditions humus has a high value. 



Q. Is it a good idea to haul manure on alfalfa Inad? 



A. That is a good use to make of manure, but we ought 

 to be able to make still better use of it. The element of chief 

 value in the farm manure is nitrogen. Alfalfa gets its own 

 nitrogen — it looks almost like a waste of nitrogen applying it 

 to alfalfa. At the lowest commercial prices, 15 cents a pound 

 for nitrogen, 12 cents for phosphorus in bonemeal, and 6 cents 

 for potassium, manure would be worth $1.50 for its nitrogen, 

 because there are 10 pounds of nitrogen in a ton of manure, 

 24 cents for the 2 pounds of phosphorus, and 48 cents for 



